Primary school children from Colyton, Hawkchurch and Musbury re-enact trench warfare

Forty-two pupils from three local primary schools were invited to Colyton Grammar for a day of First World War history and remembrance.

The children, from Colyton, Hawkchurch and Musbury, took part in workshops ranging from quizzes and poetry writing to making poppies and re-enacting trench warfare.

Each child was also given a sticker bearing the name of one local soldier who went to war, and at the end of the day they discovered whether or not their soldier had survived.

Alongside the children, six Year 13 students dressed in authentic First World War uniforms to represent some of the former students and staff from Colyton Grammar School who gave their lives in the Great War.

These students returned at the school’s Remembrance Assembly as a poignant reminder of the young age of many of the soldiers who died.

The school’s library also sported a display of original First World War artefacts loaned to the school by a member of staff, including a German Pickelhaube helmet, a Russian maxim machine gun, and telephone line testing metres used to test communication lines from the front.

The Poppy Project is a venture by Colyton Grammar School to create almost 1,000 model poppies and display them in various local venues. The project marks this year’s centenary of the end of the First World War and aims to raise money for the Royal British Legion.